Unity (ReWrite)
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: After Graduation, Xander goes on a Road Trip. He runs into another group of "heroes" and discovers-outside the influence of the Hellmouth-that he has a special ability on par with being the Slayer, or a super witch. He can Fuse-temporarily-with other people to create a whole new, more powerful hero that is an amalgam of everything they were and are. Like Access from Amalgam Comics.
1. Hero

**Fusion 01:** _H.E.R.O._

 _Disclaimer: Post Season 3 Finale of BtVS, set during latter half of Season 1 of Heroes. Xander and other BtVS associated characters are property of Mutant/Enemy Productions, Claire, Hiro, Ando, Niki, West Rosen and other Heroes associated characters are property of NBC. I gain nothing but enjoyment from this._

Xander was on the road to Las Vegas, Nevada. Emphasis on the part of ' _on the road_ ', seeing as he was currently lying on his back on the hot concrete as the blistering sun beat down on him, and his car was a flaming wreck next to him.

How did he get into this position? What was going on? Who was attacking him? Was he even being attacked, or did he crash? And most importantly, where was his Twinkee snack stash?

As he sat up and looked around, he soon deduced the answers to these questions. In reverse order; scattered across the other side of the highway with the rest of his luggage. Yes, he was attacked and because of that he did crash, flipping the car over a couple times and still landing on tires by the looks of it. Some jackass in a trucker's cap and a long black coat that seemed to have the ability to move things with his mind. Some kind of superhero battle with him as the innocent bystander. And finally, apparently he'd been thrown from his flipping car and had luckily managed not to be crushed by the flaming debris when it came to a stop beside where he'd landed.

The urgent questions answered, he turned to more immediate concerns; like staying alive and out of the line of fire of the bad guy.

"It's your own fault, you know," came the quiet, dark-toned voice of said bad guy. "It didn't need to come to this. You even got this 'innocent bystander' killed. Some heroes. You are pathetic!"

Xander hated this guy already.

"We gotta get to him, get him out of the line of fire," he vaguely heard a girl's voice say from the other side of the wreck. Not a huge leap of logic to figure out she was talking about him.

Getting up off the ground, but staying off his feet to present less of a target, the Sunnydale veteran tried to get a clue as to what was really going on. There was the flaming wreck of his car, then there was a bunch of rocks thrown around the road, which actually looked more like _parts_ of the road ripped right out of the ground and tossed around. There was also a very solid looking truck not too far away that was still right-side up. From his current perspective he could see the 'Black Hat', as they were colloquially known as on the Hellmouth, and a group hiding behind the truck that consisted of two oriental men, a young girl that reminded him a little too much of Buffy, an older blond woman that seemed to be having a meltdown at the moment, and a young guy that was between his and the girl's age, thin with brown hair.

"It's the Scooby gang all over again," he muttered. "Just with guys from Japan instead of England."

Problem was, how could he even begin to help them out? For that matter, how was he going to help himself? He was plan guy, not powers guy, and this was a situation more suited to people with powers.

Then he watched as the Black Hat seemingly found his adversaries/target position behind the truck and with a far-too-casual-for-the-effect-it-had flick of his wrist, the truck slid away to the side, revealing said targets. Then, almost as impressive as that, one of the oriental men grabbed the other and the woman curled up in the fetus position and just disappeared, while the boy grabbed the girl and together they shot off into the air. Unfortunately Black Hat was faster and with whatever power he was using, grabbed them out of the air and threw them into the ground, the girl taking the brunt of it. Xander could swear that he heard bones snapping at the impact.

"Well, this is familiar," he remarked. Others with the powers and him, ordinary zeppo, plan-guy off on the sidelines distracting said powers guys from beating the bad guy. Except, Xander had never been exactly… comfortable with that role.

Grabbing a handful of pebbles from the road, Xander ran for the flying kid and… girl that should have been paralyzed that was now getting up like it was nothing. Yeah, he was definitely out of his scope here.

"Looks like somebody else wants to be a hero," the Black Hat mocked, reaching out with his hand. That was Xander's cue.

Throwing out the handful of pebbles, half expecting them to be shot back at him like bullets, he reached into his back pocket in the same motion and tried to twist out of the way, winding up tripping over his own feet, but still succeeding in throwing the wooden knife that he'd pulled out of his pocket. The pebbles didn't even make it to the Black Hat's feet, though they did succeed in distracting him (if only to wonder what the heck the young man was trying to do) just enough to miss the thrown knife. At least until it landed in his leg with enough force to cut a gash and leave some splinters.

Growling with pain and frustration at having been wounded, and by a mundane at that, Sylar did actually deign to take his eyes off of his prey for a second. In that second, Claire and West closed the distance to Xander, and Hiro, Ando and a repressing-Niki reappeared from moments in the past where they had disappeared.

Looking up at said reappearance, Sylar scowled and prepared to lash out with just one of the many abilities he's stolen over the years. Hiro, hoping to escape with everybody at the last second, reached out to grab those on the ground, but Sylar's power knocked him back and out for the count, cutting off their escape route.

Seeing their doom looming more surely than the Hellmouth beast, Xander reached out to the empowered people beside him, wishing that he'd had one last chance to say goodbye to his friends. Now they would figure him for just another Sunnydale statistic. It was a shame, no, more than a shame, it was a tragedy what was about to happen. They'd always been stronger together, able to face any Big Bad or Black Hat the forces of darkness could throw at them. The Master, Spike and Dru, Angelus, Acathla, the Mayor. He and the gang, they'd always managed to win so long as they were united together as one.

Looking over these other heroes, these other empowered people, he wished he'd had the opportunity to get to know them. He didn't even know their names or what their stories were, but he was sure that they'd be just like his other friends. And if they'd had the chance, he was just as sure that if they united, they could face this man who was about to kill them and win, together.

"I'm sorry," was all he said, drawing their attention to him.

The girl just smiled and shrugged, so much like Buffy that it kind of freaked him out a bit. The oriental man that was still conscious looked back and forth between Xander and the other man, before finally just giving a soft grin of acceptance. The boy had grabbed Xander by the shoulder and looked scared, but offered his own self-deprecating smile. The woman, who Xander was holding the hand of, alongside the girl and the other man's, actually looked up from her repressing and offered her own tearful condolences as she knew she couldn't do anything to truly help, it was taking everything she had to keep Jessica down, who'd lead Sylar right to them in the first place, making a deal with the psychopath to spare herself in exchange for Claire and West. Unknowingly they all shared the same thought at the same moment while holding onto Xander; ' _If only I could help, I would!_ '

The balance was struck, and the power triggered.

Sylar couldn't quite be sure what had just happened, but he knew he didn't like it. The teleporter-and oh was he looking forward to _that_ power-was knocked out, so he couldn't blame it on him. Though, by all appearances, it was just as instant and straightforward as that power was. One instant there were five people huddled in the dirt, cowering before him, and then in the next instant, there was a single person standing there, defiant and by all appearances ready to fight.

This person, Sylar's over-analytical mind (his original power) identified, was male, approximately 1.90 meters in height, had jet black hair that hung in the same length and style that Claire wore her hair, had oriental features like Ando, yet white skin and brown eyes like West and the bystander did. His clothing was the male version (and perfectly tailored to his body) of the black leather outfit Niki/Jessica had been wearing. Except for the weapons of course. A knife, three wooden stakes and a handheld taser were strapped to the man's belt.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Sylar sneered at this adversary.

The man did not respond, except to focus his eyes on Sylar with (more than) a hint of anger in them. Then he floated up off the ground, his legs still extended like he was standing, and his fists clenched at his sides. Fists that were now sparking with red lightning.

If it weren't so crude, Sylar was sure that he'd be salivating. That… innocent bystander, was a Power! Somehow he'd managed to fuse them all into a single entity with only the best of each of them! He _wanted that_ _ **power**_!

He lashed out with his telekinesis and a few other offensive powers that he'd taken over the years that might help with this. The fused man crashed back down to the ground, was frozen to it, and then blasted with radiation in seconds. Only to tear through the ice like it was water and have the radiation burns healed within seconds. Before Sylar could do anything else, he flew through the air faster than the serial killer could respond to and crashed into him, knocking him back.

Then, to make sure of it all, he cupped his hands together and began pooling the red lightning of both hands until a great deal of energy had been built up, unleashing it all at once, sending the other man flying out into the distance, burns and signs of electrocution injuring him further. Once satisfied that the threat was over, the fused individual turned and floated over to where Hiro still lay unconscious on the ground. Landing only long enough to kneel down and pick the man up, the silent hero quickly launched himself and his precious cargo into the stratosphere and took off toward the southeast at subsonic (but still blazingly fast) speeds through the air.

Though the battle was short, it would be remembered and talked about for years to come, as a newly emerged Power had just drastically shifted the dynamic on how powers worked with one another and the nature of their abilities. After all, who needs a superhero team, when they could just be fused into one all-powerful amalgam?

When they were all next a 'they' rather than a 'him', it took some investigation to figure out exactly where they were. Hiro had actually woken up while still in the air, being carried by the silent man in black leather. He was afraid that it was Sylar, or some other villain, but something about the face, and the fact that he had red lightning coming out of his fingertips told him that whoever this mystery man was, he had something to do with Ando, which made him a friend in Hiro's book.

A lot of one-sided conversation, in both Japanese and English, later and Hiro had them landing in an area devoid of people, yet within walking distance to a decent sized city without too much trouble. Moments after Hiro had been released and there was no sign of any nearby danger or threat of danger, the nameless silent hero blinked out of existence, and five randomly placed (but still close to each other) empowered heroes reappeared, standing in the exact same manner and pose that the man had been. Until they collapsed on the spot from being unconscious.

Hiro tried unsuccessfully to rouse each of them, until exactly eighteen minutes and twenty-six seconds had passed, which was exactly twice as long as the group had been fused for, down to the second. And despite being the master of all space and time, Hiro Nakamura did not keep track of the time or pay attention to this fact at all. He was too relieved that they all woke up, not bothering to note they all came to at the same moment.

Once they all accepted they were no longer in danger, and no longer where they had been 'moments' before, some quick introductions were made.

"Hello," Hiro bowed in greeting, his Japanese accept quite obvious, "I am Nakamura Hiro. Sank you for saving us from za bad man."

Xander startled and looked back at the teleporter with genuine shock and awe. "Whoa, wait a second, I didn't do anything! I threw some pebbles and a knife, and I tripped while doing both! Didn't even distract the guy!" he protested.

"You used your power," Hiro insisted with a bright knowing grin. "None of us have za power to… to… to…" he looked confused for a moment before looking to the other oriental man, Ando, and asked in Japanese, "' _Gattai' no tame no kotoba wa nanidesu ka?_ "

"Fusion," Ando replied, before looking to Xander and further translating. "Combining. Somehow, I think you merged us all into a single being."

"That… is not possible," Xander stated with absolute faith and certainty.

Ando held up his hands and charged a bolt of red lightning between them. "My name is Masahashi Ando. Ando," he introduced himself.

"Claire," the blond girl that reminded him so much of Buffy commented, before she casually dislocated her wrist and then her fingers one by one, and then allowed him to watch as she healed in real time right in front of him.

"... Niki… Sanders…" the timid woman said from behind Claire, hugging herself. "How… how did you do that?"

"Do… what?" Xander was very confused. "Look, guys, I swear, I didn't do a thing! It is absolutely awesome to know more heroes are out in the world and everything, but I'm not exactly one of you. I mean, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I have played a helping hand in saving the world a time or two, but I don't have powers! I swear!"

"None of us have that power," Claire argued back. "None of us could have done whatever it is that happened. West, here, he flies, like my Dad. Me, I heal. Hiro does something with space/time, Ando has the lightning thing, and Niki is strong, when she wants to be. And Hiro was knocked out when we went from an 'us' to a 'him'!"

Xander was left blinking at that declaration.

It… wasn't possible… was it?

No, he started shaking his head, it wasn't possible. If he had powers, he would know about it… wouldn't he?

"Where were you during the eclipse?" Claire challenged him suddenly.

"Uh… what does that have to do with anything?" he responded, suddenly defensive.

"The eclipse is when… most of us got their powers," Ando hastily explained. "And then during the last eclipse, everybody actually lost their powers for the duration of the eclipse. Some others also discovered their powers after that eclipse."

Xander stopped and stared. He then looked down at himself. Was it really possible? He looked up and told them the truth.

"I was at my High School graduation, fighting for my life, killing vampires, and blowing up my school to kill the mayor who had transformed into a giant snake demon. Why, what did you guys do during the eclipse?"

"I was dying," Claire responded in the same tone.

"We were in Africa retrieving a telepath with psychic visions," Hiro added.

"I was under the control of a madman bent on world domination, who had forced me to kill my family," Niki put in her own two cents.

They all looked to West, who shrugged and said, "I was grounded. Literally and figuratively."

"... Yeah, I still win," Xander decided after a beat.

"So, I've got the power to… fuse people together? Like in some kind of cartoon?" he asked once he'd processed it enough.

"Apparently," Claire said.

"I'd ask how this was even possible, but I know better than to ask that question by now," Xander said, running his fingers through his short black hair. "There some kind of training program, or secret organization like the X-Men or Justice League that I have to sign up with?"

"I wish," was the consensus reply with a few varieties thrown in across the group.

Ando elaborated, "For the most part we have just done what we could, trying to do the right thing. Everyone has had to figure out how to use their powers on their own for the most part. Some with more success than others," he shot an amused look at his friend, who had the decency to blush at whatever he was referring to.

"And the super villain guy back there?" Xander asked.

Everybody scowled, while Niki looked like she very well might break down on the spot. Claire angrily answered him first.

"Sylar," she named the villain. "He's some kind of… super clockmaker genius that has figured out a way to steal or absorb powers from other… special people. Nobody knows exactly how he does it, just that he cuts open the heads of those people and takes out their brains."

"Um, ouch," Xander winced.

"Nobody knows how many powers he's got by now, but needless to say, he's killed a lot of people and has a lot of powers," West commented.

"He is a villain, one we have defeated before and shall defeat again," Hiro stated with absolute conviction.

"Yeah, well, sometimes the only way to win a fight is to run as hard and as fast as you can," Xander said. "Obviously he's got telekinesis. Anything else I should keep an eye out for? Can he teleport or track us down?"

"No," Hiro shook his head. "Only I am the master of space and time. He once tried to acquire the power that might permit him to find us all, but he was stopped and that person is now safe."

"Far as we know, he finds us the old fashioned way; investigation," Niki said.

"It was how he found me," Claire commented. "Or rather, somebody that had taken credit for something I had done."

"Hey," Xander gave the blond cheerleader an impulsive hung. "Whatever that psychopath does, is not yours or anyones fault but his own. Believe me, I've dealt with creeps like him before. Well, not exactly like him, but you know what I mean. They want you to blame yourself for the things they do and say that everything they do is your fault because you couldn't stop them. That is bullshit. We're all responsible for exactly one person; ourselves. Everybody else is only our responsibility if we make them our responsibility. So don't let the bad guys win by letting them get in your head. Then you'll just lose twice that way."

"Well said," Hiro nodded, in full agreement.

"Look, I'm sorry to burst the bubble and everything but," West spoke up. "Does anybody know where we are? Or how to get back, well, y'know, home?"

"Pretty sure we're in Albuquerque, New Mexico," Xander said.

"How would you know that?" Claire challenged, hands on her hips. "Got some other super power you don't know about having?"

Xander silently pointed behind the group and upon turning and looking, they saw an interstate road sign proclaiming they were "Now Leaving Albuquerque Corp Limit", right next to a New Mexico interstate mile marker.

"Oh," Claire sheepishly remarked, blushing.

"I can take everyone to their homes, if it is safe that is," Hiro offered with a short bow. Niki silently nodded her head, hugging herself tighter.

Claire shared a look with West and grinned, and then said, "Actually, we're not too far from my home. Closer than I was anyway. West and I can make our own way home. Thanks though."

Being the odd man out, Xander shrugged and replied honestly, "I'd rather have my ride back, in all honesty. I'm on a road trip after graduating High School, so I'm not due back home for a couple more months. Unfortunately, all my cash, luggage and snack foods burned up back there! Looks like my road trip is over either way."

"I may be able to help wiz zatt," Hiro smiled mischievously.

A blink of time later, Xander and Hiro reappeared with the former's very-much-intact '57 Chevy Convertible, luggage and snack cakes intact. How was this possible? The magic of time travel, and the fortunate luck that even for Sylar things had been moving too fast to see things as much more than a blur, until they'd settled that is.

First, they'd teleported back in time to the moment Xander had been driving down the highway and froze time at the moment Sylar lashed out with his telekinesis to destroy the moving vehicle. They'd actually taken his past self and moved him out of the car and put him at the very spot he remembered waking up at. Then they switched out the car with one from a junkyard Hiro knew about and doused the whole thing in gasoline so the sparks from its landing would be enough to set it on fire. To add the finishing touches, Xander merely emptied his trashbag along the highway where he'd 'seen' all his snack cakes and stuff during the actual confrontation. After that, it was just a matter of teleporting back to New Mexico with the spared convertible and saying goodbye to everyone.

Hiro, Ando and Niki vanished on the spot, presumably heading back to Niki's home to drop her off with her family, before moving on to their next great adventure. West picked Claire up in the classic 'Superman' hold and then took off into the air, heading west towards Texas. Leaving Xander alone to continue his road trip alone.

Stopping at the very next gas station he came across, both to fill up and to get a general sense of direction, he came across a brochure for the annual UFO convention going on in Roswell, NM, starting in less than a weeks time. Curious, and having recently met other superheroes and having known the world was a lot weirder than what they taught in school, Xander decided to give it a shot. Who knows, he might meet some actual aliens or something?

Thus, getting a cheap map of the state, he got back out on the road and headed towards Roswell. After he made sure the top would work on the car, that is. No way was he driving through open desert without shade and air conditioning!

END **Fusion 01**


	2. Avilzandrath

**Fusion 02:** _Avilzandrath_

 _Disclaimer: Post Season 3 finale of BtVS and Post Season 1 Finale of Roswell. Xander and other BtVS associated characters are property of Mutant/Enemy Productions, Liz, Maria, the Aliens and their abilities are property of the WB and UPN, created by Jason Katims and based upon the novel series_ Roswell High _by Melinda Metz. I make no profit from this._

Xander pulled into Roswell just as the sun was setting on the desert horizon. Fortunately, he'd been seeing signs and other advertisements for the various hotels and motels throughout the area, and managed to get lucky on his first try to find a place that did have rooms available, and was within walking distance of all the 'festivities' of the UFO convention. After his room was squared away, and he'd cleaned up with a shower and a change of clothes, he headed out into the city to see what Roswell was really like. Besides, he'd been a night owl since he was sixteen years old, and he didn't see that changing until he was either dead or geriatric.

First stop, before anything else, was to find food. Fortunately, the _Crashdown Diner_ was nearby and seemed to be fairly popular, and cheap compared to the available alternatives at the moment. Walking in, he did his best to restrain his laughter at the sight before him.

The Crashdown was a small town UFO-obsessed remake of all those more popular restaurants that populate their walls and every free inch of space with memorabilia, in this case everything "alien", "sci-fi", or "sparkly-shiny". On top of that, the employee uniform consisted of a bright teal-green dress lined with 'spaceman-silver' lapels and cuffs, and an apron that depicted the face of the infamous "gray aliens", while they wore 'alien' bunny ear headbands. It was so In-Your-Face about everything that Xander couldn't help laughing a little bit as he took it all in.

"Hi, welcome to the Crashdown," a hot blond girl with a bored look on her way-too-much-make-up-wearing face said as he walked in the door. "How many in your party?"

"Just me," he said easily, smiling easily at her. At least there was no danger of his eyes straying, as those uniforms actually had him squinting and looking away from them. He did look long enough to see her nametag read 'MARIA'.

"Great," she said, grabbing one menu. "Booth or table?"

Looking around the place and seeing it as moderately crowded, but not overly so, Xander answered, "Table is fine. Thanks."

She just nodded and wordlessly lead him to one of the central tables that was currently unoccupied and set him up with his menu there.

Formalities over and done with, she quickly turned back to the counter and resumed the conversation that apparently his arrival had interrupted, between herself, another waitress, a couple patrons at the counter, and the cook in the back, all a couple years younger than he himself was, if that much. Looking over the menu, he quickly surmised that people didn't really come here for the service anyway.

He quickly made his decision from the… oddly named selection, and patiently waited for either of the waitresses to come take his order. While sipping his water and waiting, however, he really couldn't help overhearing some of the "whispered" conversation going on by the counter. Considering the cook-guy was actually shouting through the small window he was standing behind, it wasn't as quiet as they'd obviously intended on it being.

"Any word from Nasedo?" the cook-guy asked the tall, lanky guy that reminded Xander of somebody he didn't like, he just couldn't remember who at the moment.

"Not since just after he left," lanky-guy answered. "He gave me the number to reach him at while he's in Washington, but said to only call him in an emergency."

"And you not liking your job or your foster-dad do not count as an emergency, Michael," said the gorgeous blond sitting next to lanky-guy. One of the two waitresses that seemed to be orbiting the gathering stopped by the window and quickly added to the conversation.

"Take a chill pill, Isabel," blond-waitress said. "Michael was just trying to stay in the loop. Besides, working here, keeps him out of that trailer park, and as a bonus, he gets to look at me all day. Win-win, right Michael?"

Even Xander could sense the cold shoulder cook-guy (apparently 'Michael') gave the blond waitress, although a part of him felt it was more from embarrassment on his part rather than maliciousness or anger at her.

"Did we at least come up with a reasonable explanation for Tess to suddenly be living on her own, Max?" brunette-waitress asked the lanky guy as she came up to pick up her next order that… Michael had just put up.

Max, lanky-guy, shrugged and replied, "She said she'd take care of it. With… you know?" The way they all either nodded, shivered, or averted their gaze said plenty, and reminded Xander of when the Scooby Gang would talk about vampires or demons in public. "I trust her, Liz. That she can take care of it, that is."

Brunette-waitress, Liz apparently (and according to her nametag), pursed her lips, annoyed, but made a noise of agreement and quickly took the order and quickly delivered it to the appropriate table. Meanwhile, blond-waitress, Maria according to her nametag, leaned in closer but asked in no quieter a whisper, "So, any signs of a… you know, a reply to that signal you guys sent out? Is some passing starship going to come beam you all up, or have other aliens made contact yet?"

Xander quickly picked his menu back up to help cover his inevitable reaction. Aliens? For real…? OK, if there are demons and vampires and ghosts and werewolves, and undoubtedly zombies and other 'make-believe movie' creatures out there, why not aliens? Hell, according to Giles, demons and etcetera are actually aliens from some kind of hell dimension, so why not aliens from _this_ dimension, and just not this planet?

"No, nothing yet," Max answered, glancing all around. Xander made sure his gaze was solidly on his menu when it looked like the lanky… whatever, started to glance his way.

"Hey, sorry for the wait. What can I get today?" a waitress in the teal-green 'alien-themed' uniform approached his table. She wasn't one of the two orbiting the conversation by the cook's window, though she had blond hair, unlike the other waitress it was straight and only came to the top of her shoulders, rather than halfway down her back. Her nametag read "Courtney".

"I'll start with a… I'm sorry, but I'm not calling it that," Xander shook his head in disbelief at the name they'd given the most basic burger one can have in America. "I'll have the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings instead of fries, and a coke."

"One 'Wrath of Bay-Kahn' with a side of Saturn Rings and a coke, coming right up," she smiled blandly at him.

"Theme restaurants," the vampire hunter sighed, shaking his head in dismay.

The group having the 'hushed' conversation dispersed soon after as the cook-guy, Michael, got busy making his order, amongst others, and apparently the lanky-guy, Max, had to get to his own summer job, although he didn't hear what or where that was. As for the girls, they left without a word and the waitresses resumed their job. Although the brunette, nametag "Liz", and lanky-guy Max shot each other some… disturbingly familiar 'longing looks' at each other when Max left.

It bothered Xander for all of ten minutes as he ate his meal, trying to figure out why it was bothering him, until it finally hit him. They were the same looks that Buffy and Angel had been shooting each other those last few weeks of school, after Angel had 'announced' that he'd be leaving town after the Mayor was taken care of. What was it with inhuman guys and teen girls crushing on them anyway?

After he'd finished his lunch and paid for it, Xander found himself with some time left to kill before the festivities began for the convention. Taking a look around, he spotted some brochures for 'attractions' around town, next to the Crashdown Cafe's register. Browsing, he spotted one for the quote/unquote "UFO Center", which apparently was just down the street from the cafe. Curiosity getting the better of him, Xander ambled on over to the single story building… until he walked down a flight of stairs into a rather large basement, filled with museum quality… UFO and alien crash and Area 51 crap.

And handing out passes/tickets and other souvenirs was none other than Mr. Lanky-Love-Struck-Inhuman himself, Max. Now wearing a gold vest with various pins, which happened to include a nametag of his own confirming his name to be "Max". Xander accepted his ticket stub from the kid, who was maybe a year, or less, younger than him at most, and continued to walk around the various exhibits. All the while keeping at least one eye on the lanky-kid.

The more he saw of him, the more the kid was getting under his skin. Nobody was that cold and indifferent. He was like a freaking robot and from what Xander had seen of him so far, except for when talking with his 'co-conspirators' in the Cafe, he always spoke in monotone with near-zero inflection in his voice. He was also way too laid back, as the Hellmouth-resident fully expected to see him looking bored or even annoyed at having to do probably the most menial job there was to do in this place. As it was, from Xander's perspective he looked… well, he looked _content_. Nobody should be _content_ standing in one place taking ticket stubs and handing out brochures and souvenirs!

Something was up with this kid.

He couldn't be sure if it was demonic, alien, or what, but Xander's instincts were screaming at him to keep an eye on this kid.

Unfortunately, hanging around watching a kid do his job sounded boring in the extreme, and was also a bit stalkerish, and Xander didn't do that. Brooding pedophilic vampires with an unhealthy obsession with hair gel products did that, but Alexander Lavelle Harris did _not_!

So, after giving each exhibit at least a once over, he left and started heading toward the site listed on the convention brochure for the next event, even though he was still an hour early.

Along the way, he just so happened to come upon the gorgeous blond from the cafe, the one that wasn't a waitress. As well as another blond, slightly shorter, and with curlier hair, and a tall, less lanky and more geeky, kid that was hanging around the gorgeous blond much the same way that he'd used to hang around Buffy, as ashamed as he was to admit it.

In all honesty, all he did was notice them. He did not start to follow or tail them or anything. They were just, apparently, all going to the same destination for whatever reason. Fifteen minutes until 'the festivities' began, they were joined by 'Max' and 'Liz' and 'Maria', and 'Michael', though they were all out of their respective work uniforms and dressed up for a night on the town much like everyone else in the crowd. Again, he wasn't stalking them, but every few minutes or so he'd sweep by where the group was hanging out to see what was going on with them whilst he meandered through the growing crowd of the UFO convention.

The booths were actually kind of awesome, and not just UFO/alien/government conspiracy things, but there was a Star Trek memorabilia booth, not to mention at least one for each genre that involved aliens of any kind. So he had plenty to occupy him whilst he… uh, checked up on the kids that reminded him _so much_ of the Scooby Gang back in Sunnydale.

In hindsight, it was a very good thing that he did, but he couldn't help feeling a bit like a hair-gelled undead stalker as he did it. It was as he meandered back toward his car that it happened.

Black SUVs and a couple of unmarked vans began parking around the edges of the convention area. They didn't come roaring in, tires squealing as they slid into position or anything. No, it was all quite normal and regular and entirely inconspicuous. Except for the fact that each and every road leading toward the area now had at least two black SUVs parked across from each other, and he noticed at least three vans spaced equidistant from each other, all of them idling.

So he might have taken the 'long' route back to his car, but still.

The Roswell branch of the Scooby Gang stuck together and started walking back toward the center of town, as far as he could tell. Of course, he only knew this because he stayed by his car and watched as they left. Unfortunately, he could also tell that he wasn't the only ones watching them.

"Is he still back there?" Michael asked, nervously glancing back.

"Who?" Maria asked her reluctant-alien-boyfriend.

"The guy that has been tailing us since the diner," he insisted.

"No," Max replied, glancing in a nearby reflective surface to see behind them.

"Think we lost him?" Michael asked, sighing in relief.

"Now he's over on our left, across the street," he said with more than a little amusement in his voice.

"What?!" he exclaimed, turning to look, only to see no one there. "Max! I'm serious! He might be another spy like Topolsky or Pierce. He's been eyeballing us all day. I can feel it."

"Not _all_ day," Max retorted.

"Since the diner," Michael insisted.

Glancing back, Max frowned briefly when he saw exactly who Michael was talking about, and he was indeed still tailing them, though only by half a block. And it seemed he was more concerned about something else than following them, at least the man's own nervous looks around seemed to suggest as much.

"We should probably split up," he decided. "Try and see if we can lose him."

"So he _is_ still back there," Michael grumbled.

"OK, I'm starting to get worried now," Maria admitted, moving closer to Michael.

"It'll be all right, Maria," Liz comforted her friend.

"Uh, guys…?!" Tess urgently called out.

They didn't need her to explain what she'd called out for, as the danger was all too obvious with a trio of black SUVs converging on them from multiple directions! They all huddled together at the encroaching threat, but when the closest one actually squealed tires as it slid on its brakes, Maria and Liz were separated from the rest of the group in the confusion and practically ran right into the arms of the commandos.

Xander, seeing what was happening, didn't even hesitate as he ran forward, screaming out, "RUN! GET OUT OF THERE! _RUN_!"

The two girls, the blond and brunette, were already caught, but the other four were huddled back to back, each holding one hand out like that could stop the soldiers. As for Xander, he aimed for the alien quartet, the only thought in his head was that he wanted to protect the innocents and keep his identity a secret in the process. Ironically, or perhaps, conveniently, those were the same thoughts shooting through Max, Michael, Isabel and Tess's minds at the very moment that he reached them.

It wasn't that he tackled them, it was more like he was aiming for the two girls and intended to take them by their outstretched hands and drag them to safety, or at the very least away from danger. The four, however, also had their other hands in each others, a habit they'd gotten into over the past few months since Tess had rejoined them. As such, the moment Xander grabbed Isabel and Tess by their wrists, all five were thinking the same thoughts and were in physical contact with one another.

Xander's power triggered for the second time.

Before any of the individuals present even knew what was going on, there was a blinding flash of light and the five teens vanished, only to be replaced by a single teen standing there in a black-leather-and-denim costume, of sorts. Rather than be the same as what he'd worn the last time this had happened, the current outfit consisted of heavy black leather boots, black denim pants, a leather armor vest/shirt combo, and a waist-length black leather jacket over the top of it. As for the new individual himself, he actually most resembled Max, but there were subtle differences that would tell anyone that knew him that this _was not Max Evans_!

For one thing, his black hair was the same length that Isabel and Tess's had been. For another, his eyes were a flashing mix of brown, hazel and blue. His bulk was the same as Xander's, however, while his facial features were equally feminine and masculine at the same time. The other huge difference was that he actually spoke, and it was Max's voice… if he talked like Isabel, had Tess's accent and was a good five to ten years older.

"Release them!" the newly created amalgam ordered.

He held out one hand and the two that had grabbed the girls went flying away from them, knocked unconscious. The rest all turned their weapons on the 'unidentified' threat.

The masked commandos gave no audible reply, but they seemed to be able to communicate with each other, so he had to figure they must be using some kind of micro-transmitter technology to be speaking with one another and relaying commands. A quick peak into their minds confirmed all that he needed to know.

A heartbeat later, he recognized what had happened, and what _was_ happening as being stranger than normal, but for right now, Liz and Maria were still in danger. He could deal with the strangeness later.

"M-Max?!" Liz shouted out her shock at seeing what had happened.

Seeing that this was a conversation that should not be listened in on, he reached out with his power… powers, and caught all of the assault group in a mindwarp of a rather unnecessarily elaborate escape on the part of the teenagers, starting with Xander throwing off a "flashbang grenade or something" that had blinded all of them and allowed Maria and Liz to both squirm away at the same time that the others escaped. Followed immediately by using his dream-walking power to trace back to the minds of whoever was on the other end of their video gear. Thankfully, this was the late 20th Century, not yet even 1999, so the concept of helmet-cams was still pretty "Next-Gen" and far too bulky to wear for a covert op like this. Their radios, on the other hand, still worked, and last report had them approaching the "targets" and seconds away from "acquiring the targets". Fortunately, it was just as easy for him to mindwarp those listening on the other end into the same elaborate scenario, while the tapes would only record silence. The whole thing took about… five seconds. Enough time for Liz and Maria to actually squirm away and come running up to him.

"Max?" Liz whispered, walking up to this strange man that looked… and didn't look like her boyfriend.

Looking down at the love of his life / friend / girlfriend's best friend / most hated rival / stranger, he recognized her and realized that he needed to calm her down, reassure her, and also get them all to somewhat safety. Unfortunately, this amalgam didn't have the ability to fly, though he could run really fast. In the meantime though, he glanced back up at the surrounding commandos and adjusted the mindwarp to have them getting back in their vehicles and driving 'away' until the mindwarp eventually wore off. Then he needed to do some… introspection.

 _After_ reassuring Liz and Maria, two of the strongest parts of him instinctively insisted!

"I'm fine, Liz, Maria. You're OK now," he said.

"... Max…?" Liz repeated, asking a different question now it seemed.

"I'm… not Max," he said in the same halting-manner that Max sometimes spoke in, but his overall mannerisms still struck the girls as more 'Isabel' than the tall lanky alien leader. "I am…" he stopped and looked off into the night sky, over to a rather _specific_ constellation.

Looking back down at the two teens, even as the commandos drove off into the night, he finally answered, "I am _Avilzandrath_. Though, I suppose you can call me Zand for the moment."

"Say what now?" Maria blurted out, her 'WTF' face on full.

"I can explain," 'Zand' said, with a bit of Michael and Isabel both that time. "But don't you think we should have this conversation in a place with, oh say a bit more privacy?"

"Michael's… uh, your…" Maria trailed off, confused, before just throwing her arms up in the air and blurting out, "Michael's new apartment is nearby. That private enough for you?"

"It'll do," the tall, well-muscled man shrugged. "Shall we?"

It was a tense few minutes as they walked the short distance to Michael's apartment and let themselves in. The two human girls were practically huddled together they were walking so close, giving the new wrinkle in their alien-filled lives a wide berth. It all came to a head the moment the front door was shut and locked behind them.

"OK, what the hell just happened out there?!" Maria cried out. "Guys _with guns_ just tried to kidnap us all! I thought this kind of thing was over and done with? Wasn't, whats-his-name supposed to _warn us_ when this kind of thing was coming our way? Wasn't he supposed to _stop it_?! And that does not even get me started on what the hell happened to the others and where you even came from Mister Avon-Schwans-Person!"

"Avilzandrath," Zand said again, patiently. "It… it is a fusion of my primary sources true names. Ava, Zand, Vilandra, and Rath. Xander is also in there, but I don't think he'd mind being part of the 'Xand' part of me anyway."

"Who is Xander?" Liz inquired, after a quick look with Maria.

"He's the stranger that tackled the others as they were about to be killed," Zand answered honestly. Somehow, he both had all the knowledge and memory of his 'sources', but he also had knowledge that, individually, they did not have. It was a most intriguing experience.

"He is also the one that made this… miracle possible in the first place," he said.

"Is he an alien? Like, like you? Like the others?" Liz asked.

Zand shook his head, "No. He's human. He is actually an ordinary guy, for the most part. The reason he was following you-us, was because he was part of a group in his home town that, well was very similar to our group dynamic. It wasn't until he left his home that he discovered this… _ability_ of his. He's only done it once before, with others that had powers of their own. That one couldn't really converse, or do much of anything really. Apparently those individuals were not very well balanced, as I am."

"What _are_ you?" the petite brunette had to ask.

"I am," Zand paused to consider his words, "an amalgam. A mixture, or blending of different materials. The materials in this case being Max, Isabel, Michael, Tess and Xander. I have all of their powers, their memories, their experiences, all of it. But I am me, a whole new being; Avilzandrath."

"Zand," Maria repeated, for herself.

"Can you… can you separate?" Liz asked, looking to be on the verge of tears if the answer was no.

"There was no difficulty the last time this happened," Zand remarked. "And, I have a sneaking suspicion that Xander will want to better understand these new powers of his before moving on. My other sources, as well as you and Maria, may very well help him with that understanding. All I ask is that you try, and do what you do best, Liz."

He reached out and gently brushed her hair behind her ear, the same way Max always did. "Give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Max?" Liz begged, holding the hand to her cheek.

"He is a part of me," Zand smiled and then glanced at Maria. "As is Michael. I feel the love each has for you. I am as much in love with you as both of them are. Which is why I understand that you need to see them again. I should warn you, but perhaps that will do little good. When I separate, there will be… consequences."

"What kinds of consequences?" Maria demanded, rushing forward.

"You'll see," Zand said with a cocky smirk, totally Michael. "You might want to stand back. There are about to be five people standing where only one is now."

Nodding, both girls stepped back, holding each other's hands for mutual support. There was a blinding flash of light that seemed to cover everything in their field of vision, and when they looked again, Isabel, Max, Michael, Tess and Xander were all standing there. Unlike the first separation Xander had gone through, none of them fainted, rather they all, each one of them, reached out and grabbed one another for physical support.

"What…" Isabel started to say, only for Michael to seamlessly finish the question, "...happened?"

"We separated," Tess said, right before Max concluded, "I think."

Xander, the tall man with dark hair and brown eyes in the middle of the grouping, blinked and looked at each of them. "I think that…" he started to say, only for Tess and then Isabel to finish the thought, "...we have figured out what the…" , "...consequences are that he was talking about."

"Why are you guys finishing each other's sentences?" Maria asked.

"What Zand said," Isabel began, "about consequences when," Tess continued, "we separated. This is," Max added, "what he was talking about," Michael concluded.

"We're still…" Xander trailed off helplessly.

"Connected," the four said in sudden unison.

"Is that why Tess is holding your hand, Max?" Liz accused. "Or why Isabel is hanging off Michael's arm? Or why both you and Michael are holding this _stranger_ by the shoulders like he's your long lost brother?!"

"It's not," Max started, "like that," Michael finished.

"I was just…" Xander apologized, only for Tess to finish the apology, "... trying to help." Isabel couldn't help adding, "Honest."

"Could maybe just _one of you_ try speaking at a time?" Maria snapped.

"We're," Max, "Trying," Xander.

"But it just seems to…" Tess said.

"...flow naturally," Michael said.

"Like we're all still thinking the same," Isabel said.

"...thoughts, at the exact same time, and…" Xander continued.

"...we're having trouble deciphering who's speaking when," Max concluded.

"How long is it going to last?" Liz quietly questioned.

"Twice as long," Xander answered, with Max finishing the thought, "as the fusion itself lasted."

"So… twenty minutes to half an hour then?" she confirmed.

"How about we all just not talk for those twenty minutes then," Maria suggested, holding her hand up when it looked like her boyfriend was about to say something. " _Hup_! No talking. Any chance of letting go of each other while we're waiting? Or at least switching partners?"

They each looked down at their hands clasped with one another. Max was the first to try and let go of Tess's hands, but then they all winced.

"It," Xander gasped, "hurts!" Michael agreed.

Tess looked down, and hurt in more ways than just physically, but she went ahead and spoke. "But this, like the talking thing…"

"... is only temporary. It'll pass," Isabel confirmed.

"But maybe we can try…" Max started to suggest.

"Switching partners?" Michael finished the thought.

Soon, it was Xander holding either of the girls' hands, while Max and Michael shared a half-brotherly-hug, and Max holding his sister's other hand. They all just stood there for about ten minutes in uncomfortable silence, before Xander spoke up again.

"Look, guys, everyone, I really am sorry about what happened, I was just trying…" he said, but Michael interrupted, finishing the sentence anyway when he probably didn't have to.

"To protect us. I know. We, well, I can, but I think we all can still remember what happened when we were…" he trailed off.

"Fused," Max said, refusing to call the amalgam by name.

"Sounds like you guys are starting to separate, or whatever," Maria observed, moving closer to Michael.

"I'm more interested in what we managed to do while fused," Tess said, still holding Xander's hand. "I've been working on boosting my powers, but I have _never_ been able to mindwarp so many people, and…" she trailed off, nervously glancing at Max.

Xander took pity on her, squeezing her hand for support and finished the thought that he mostly had to deduce now that they were truly separating. "But _He_ , Zand, managed to do it without even trying that hard. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was holding back. By _a lot_!"

"He," Liz started to say, but quickly clarified her statement, "Avilzandrath, Zand, the amalgam…" She took a breath and started over. "He said that you've done this before?"

"Uh, yeah, _once_!" Xander insisted, clenching Tess and Isabel's hands tightly. "And I'm still not entirely convinced it wasn't one of those _other_ superheroes out on the deserted highway! I mean, one of them could shoot _red lightning_! One could fly, this cheerleader girl, she was like invulnerable or something! And the other guy, that wasn't part of it, he could teleport and control space/time! And I'm supposed to believe that _I'm_ the one that actually fused us all together? As if!"

"But what if you were?" Liz questioned. "Are you just going to take off and chance this happening again without knowing all of the consequences? Or are you going to take Zand's advice and stick around so we can help each other?"

"What do you mean, Liz?" Max asked, intrigued.

"You've all said it, Zand was a _lot_ more powerful than each of you. Maybe even more powerful than all of you combined. He… it… whatever, was _more_ than the sum of its parts. We need to find out exactly how much more, and what the _exact_ consequences of Xander's power is," she explained.

"Uh, look, I appreciate the offer and everything, but I don't want to put you guys at risk," Xander backed away, actually letting go of the girls' hands. There was a brief group wince, but it alleviated the moment Isabel grabbed Tess and pulled her closer. Xander, however, was still backing away.

"For all we know, it was me coming into town that drew these guys to you!" he protested.

"That isn't how it was," Isabel shook her long blond hair. "I… remember. Zand… er, _He_ used my power to look inside the soldiers' minds. They would have come tonight whether you were here or not. Believe it or not, you actually _did_ save us. We wouldn't have been able to fight all of them off by ourselves. Not and have an actual chance of getting away."

"But…" he tried further protest, but this time it was Michael who broke away next, actually chasing the older male and dragging him back, closer to the group.

"But nothing," he said. "We're helping you, you're helping us. We'll probably need that kind of power until our friend in DC can make sure this kind of thing stops happening. You're staying. You can bunk here on my couch instead of wasting money at a hotel."

"Well, when you put it that way," Xander finally relented, "What choice do I have?"

"An obvious one," Liz informed him.

Grumbling, the Sunnydalian threw his arms up in the air, and said, "Fine! I'll stay. But only until I've got a handle on this whole… fusing-people-power thing, all right?"

"Sure Xander," Max said with a knowing smirk. "Whatever you say."

END **Fusion 02**


	3. The Dreamer

**Fusion 03:** _Dreamer_

 _Disclaimer: Post Season 3 finale of BtVS and Post Season 1 Finale of Roswell. Xander and other BtVS associated characters are property of Mutant/Enemy Productions. While Liz, Maria, the Aliens and their abilities from the TV show_ "Roswell" _are property of the WB and was created by Jonathan Dukes. I make no profit from this._

Xander had been in Roswell for nearly two weeks now. Most of that time he'd stayed at Michael's apartment, helping out a little with the rent and groceries and other small stuff like that, all things considered it was the least he could do.

At first, he'd stayed at the motel, if only to keep up appearances, but on the last day of the convention, the girls talked him around. Always the way, he privately mused.

At least, it was private until the next time he Fused with them.

He wasn't sure _how_ they'd talked him into it, but somehow the whole group had gotten behind the idea of helping him learn to control this "power" of his, which meant fusing into Zand again and again.

On the plus side of the equation, he did learn to control his "power", so chances were good that he wouldn't accidentally fuse with random people in the future. Also, by seeing what the Amalgam Zand could do with their powers, each of the aliens were learning how to do the same on their own. They were also learning what the limits of Fusion were. For example, there was a 'minimum time' that the Amalgam needed to exist for. That seemed to be at least ninety to a hundred seconds or more, but it then raised the question of how long a Fusion could last, and they'd been pushing that limit a little more each day. And knowing their limits was most definitely a good thing, because, as Tess was the one to point out, once they knew their limits, then it just became a matter of hard work and effort to _push_ those limits.

They were also discovering whole new abilities that none of them had even imagined before 'Zand' suddenly tried something new and actually succeeded! It actually had happened with each of them. Zand conjured up a 'green' forcefield/shield thing, and the next day, Max did the exact same thing. Zand used a Mindwarp to project a rainstorm over the desert, and it _actually rained_! That afternoon, Tess conjured an actual fire and made a harmless plant explode. Zand demonstrated his shapeshifting and matter-control abilities, and shortly after Michael was practically a master of disguise, although he still had some temper problems to get over. Isabel learned exactly how Zand had used her Dreamwalking ability to read the soldiers minds the first night he came into existence, after he'd used it a few more times on unknowing subjects, as well as volunteers Liz, Alex and Maria. Another surprising ability Zand demonstrated, which everyone assumed was some combination or highly advanced version of all of their powers, was when he took two separate tools or devices and somehow combined them into an entirely new tool or device that performed all of the same functions as the two individual tools.

On the negative, by fusing so often, they were all learning _a lot_ about one another! _A LOT_! Things that none of them really _wanted_ to know about each other, and definitely things about themselves that they did not want anyone else to know about!

Not to mention, a primary consequence of the fusion was that when they separated, there was the lingering . . . _drive_ to still be _One_! As though their very cells were demanding they stay touching or a part of one another, and their minds were still thinking along the same mental paths and thought processes. This translated into the real world as everyone that was a part of the fusion speaking in unison and needing to remain in physical contact for _at least_ twice as long as the fusion itself had lasted.

Needless to say, there were a lot of dirty looks being shot back and forth as they did the hand-holding version of musical chairs on several occasions. For siblings or couples that were _involved_ with one another, it was no big deal. For virtual strangers, romantic rivals, rivals-in-general, and _casual_ friends, it was a bit more… no, make that a great deal more awkward and uncomfortable than any of them were wanting it to be. Nevertheless, for the sake of continued progress, they all dealt with the situation as best as they could.

One such incident, after their longest fusion to date, (two hours), resulted in rather ... unforeseen consequences, which sort of fell in the middle ground as being really terribly awful, and ultimately pretty good for the long run.

"Are you sure about this, Liz?" Zand asked, looking back and forth between the clock and his-well, one of his girlfriends. "The last time, you couldn't even stay in the room, and everyone only had to stay in contact for around forty-five minutes. It has already been two hours since I… manifested. That is going to be four hours."

"I know," the short brunette acknowledged, ducking her head slightly so her hair might mask her expression. It didn't matter anyway, she knew Zand always saw right through her. Sometimes literally. "But… we need to know how long an Amalgam can last, and what might affect those limits. The first time, it was only about ten minutes, but you forcefully separated then. Our other experiments since then, at ten minute increments, have shown that your initial limit seemed to be around a hundred minutes or so. Also, we know that Xander, at least, needs sixty or more minutes rest between initiating fusions. With that in mind, we really need to know…"

"... how long an Amalgam can last," he said in unison with her, smiling that 'Max' smile of his, as she was beginning to think of it. "Yes, I do understand that, Liz. Truly. But the majority of me, right now, is more concerned over how you're going to react when Max and Tess are practically spooning right in front of you."

She bit her lip and refused to speak for several long moments. Finally, feeling the tension in the room skyrocket, she relented and turned to face the fused-being.

"It is going to infuriate me to no end, but there isn't anything that I can do about that," she said. "Why don't we focus on a few of the other factors we have yet to explore? Since we've got so much time to talk, that is?"

"I'm an open book," Zand said, leaning forward and grinning goofily, a trait they'd all come to learn came from the 'Xander' part of the Amalgam's personality.

"How much do you remember?" Liz asked. "I mean, how much do you know about your…?"

"Sources?" he supplied. "Everything. I know and remember everything that they themselves know and remember. Probably a bit more, as I have perfect recall."

"How does that work?" she wanted to know. "Who is that from? Xander?"

"No, Xander does _not_ have perfect recall," Zand answered, laughing. "Farthest thing from it, as a matter of fact. Although, it would be fair to say that, yes, it does come from Xander, seeing as the perfect recall seems to come from my state _as_ an Amalgam, rather than a trait from my sources. In order to know myself and my capabilities, I need to know who and what those abilities originated with, which entails that I be able to recall everything about myself as necessary."

"What is your, er, the… earliest memory that you can access?" she questioned, ready with a tape recorder and pen and paper.

Smiling his 'Max' smile again, he leaned forward to be close to her and whispered his reply. "Chronologically, or biologically?"

"I don't… understand," she gasped slightly, struggling to keep her breathing even.

"Biologically, I can remember Xander's first memories, seeing as he was born before the Four escaped their pods," Zand explained, leaning back slightly to ease Liz's discomfort. "But at the same time, I can access their genetic memories and can tell you what Zan, Vilandra, Rath and… Ava…" he trailed off suddenly, his eyes glazing over slightly.

"Zand? Zand! What is it? What's happening? Is the Fusion breaking?" Liz started to panic.

"Huh? What? Oh, no," the Amalgam shook his head. "Just… unexpected memories came to the surface. What was I saying? Oh, right, I can remember everything about the Royal Four on their home planet. And considering that all happened sometime in the late part of the last century, that would make those memories my earliest chronological memories."

"What… unexpected memories came to the surface?" she asked.

"That… is not for me to decide," Zand remarked, suddenly looking _very_ guilty. "But now that _I_ know about it… they _all_ know about it. When I separate… things are going to get very… heated, Liz. It might be best if you were… out of the line of fire."

"What…" she started to ask, and then her brain kicked into high gear. "You remembered the betrayal."

"And… everything related to it," he admitted, looking down, ashamed. " _Everything_."

"What is it?" she asked, suddenly really scared for no reason she could explain.

"I… will let Max and the others explain," Zand answered. "I still don't feel any kind of strain or need to separate, but… yeah, this needs to be taken care of. Liz, you should leave. Lock the door behind you too. Although… actually, wait, take Xander with you."

"I-I can't do that! He'll need to remain in physical contact with at least one of you until four hours from now!" she protested.

Zand's eyes glazed over, and then he seemed to nod to himself. "Isabel will go with you. Max and Michael need to… have a word… with Tess," Zand said.

"Wait!" Liz yelled, holding up her hand. "Just, wait a second, please! What isn't Tess telling us?"

"Nasedo is a traitor," Zand answered, his eyes dark and conflicted. "He raised her to be one too. He's supposed to turn the Royal Four over to Khivar, along with the Granolith. She doesn't know the details, only what he's told her. Also, Liz, you should know, that if Xander were not a part of me right now, I would be evenly divided on what to do about this. Tess is… she's my… I can't really describe it. But Xander, he balances against her influence, allowing me to make my own decision. I can't take away her powers, but I can tell you, she would never hurt Max, and she doesn't want to hurt the others. That… cannot be said for you, or for Xander."

"Wow, OK," Liz was in a bit of shock at the moment, her mind racing. "Right, so, uh, I'll grab Xander and Isabel, and Max and Michael will hold down Tess? What if she, er, what if she uses a Mind Warp on us? She's been getting stronger since, well since you…"

"Started showing her how to use her powers, yeah," Zand nodded. "Michael is going to want to hurt her, but Max…"

"Max will do the right thing," Liz insisted, looking into the Amalgam's swirling rainbow eyes. "I know he will. But… why are you so worried that Tess will try to run, or hurt me and Xander? I mean, she wants Max to like her, and she is part of the Royal Four. Hurting, or even k-killing me and Xander… Max would never trust her again, no matter what kind of Mind Warp she used. And without Xander…"

"She can't fuse into me anymore," Zand concluded. "Well, let's hope that you're right, Liz. Uh… we should probably do this in the basement. Less things to break down there."

"Good point," she agreed and lead the way down the stairs.

A minute later, Liz was blinking away the residue of the blinding flash, and then everything happened very quickly. It was almost like watching one of those nature documentaries where suddenly every one of the animals turns against the single lone troublemaker. Max and Michael grabbed Tess by the arms and practically slammed her against the far wall, keeping her in place, while Xander held Isabel back, although barely. Tess herself, she looked somewhere between terrified and royally pissed off, no pun intended.

The were each speaking only one word, all save for Tess, who was suspiciously silent during the verbal assault.

Max: "IS!", Michael: "IT!", Isabel: "TRUE?!"

Xander's voice as a bit calmer, although no less angry, which somehow, in Liz's eyes, made him even more menacing than a shouting Max.

Xander: "Is…", Max: "NASEDO!", Michael: "A!", Isabel: " _Traitor_?!", Xander then asked her intently, "Are you?"

Tess looked like she wanted to say something, like she was _going_ to say something, but then the rest of them, save Xander, all screamed at once, " _YES_!"

"No!" the curly blond cried out instantly, "I'm not…" she winced, physically hurt by having to finish her own sentence, complete her own thoughts. "...not a… a traitor! I'm not!"

"But," Michael and the rest accused, "Nasedo," Max snarled, "Is?" Isabel asked.

Silent, on the verge of tears, Tess nodded her head.

Suddenly they all four stepped back from the young woman. She cried out in pain, curling up in on herself, and while they all looked as though they might rush forward to embrace her, they all held back, fury evident in their features. Liz wasn't sure how much more of this she could watch, and quite obviously nobody was following through on the plan of getting her and Xander out of harm's way.

Speaking of whom, he suddenly perked up and looked down at the cowering alien girl. "Guys, I think that I…" he started to say, but Isabel finished for him. "... A better idea?" she asked, rather than said.

In reply, he merely held out his hands, which the others instinctively took. Liz casually noted that even Tess reached out her own to try and join, but they were now too far away, and apparently the forced separation had weakened her more than anyone had thought. Realizing far too late what was about to happen, the short brunette called out, "No!"

There was another blinding flash of light… less than ninety seconds after the last one!

This was bad, she thought. The earliest that Xander had ever been able to initiate another Fusion was _at least_ sixty minutes after they'd fully separated from one another! And now he was trying it before they'd even _finished_ separating?!

And yet...

Zand was standing there, as though nothing at all had just happened, as though he hadn't even separated. What was going on here?

"Well," he said, stunned. "That happened. Unexpected, but it definitely happened."

Tess cried out in actual _physical_ pain and crumpled to the floor in fetal position. Liz felt there was no longer any need to run away.

"What… is going on?" Liz asked, once she finally found her voice.

Zand blinked slowly, and then replied, looking her in the eye, "We, they, the others… It has been decided to… isolate Tess from, well, from me. I don't think, I _didn't_ think that Xander could have pulled off another fusion so soon, but apparently everyone's emotions were- _are_ running a little high at the moment. I need to restrain her. When I separate once more, she'll no longer be going through the, for lack of a better term, withdrawal symptoms. Call the others. They need to be here to calm my sources down once I'm seperate."

"What are we going to do?" Liz asked, as she watched Zand bodily pick the blond up off the floor and carry her over to a enclosed portion of the basement. He then began to use his powers to fashion restraints and other barriers to keep the insensate young woman in place.

"That is not for me to decide," he answered. "Max gets that particular honor."

"But you _are_ Max!" she pointed out.

"Max may be a part of me, Liz, but _Max_ is still the leader," Zand shook his head. "Michael may whine and complain about the fact, but it is a fact that he and Isabel believe in with every fiber of their being. For the record though, underneath the shock, each of my sources want to give Tess the benefit of the doubt. I cannot speak for the others, however. Which is why you should get them here. Now."

Liz left to make some phone calls.

It was Xander's first clue that whatever " _limits_ " his powers had, or that they'd discovered, they were more self-imposed than anything else. Same as with each of the aliens and their powers. Apparently they could do amazing and 'impossible' things with ease, once they actually tried and didn't hold back.

Isabel thought she had to be touching a picture and sleeping and her target likewise sleeping for her Dreamwalking powers to work. She didn't need a picture, just focus. She didn't need to be sleeping or meditating, and neither did her target. The 'limits' of her powers had been self-enforced, and thanks to Xander and his fusion power, she'd discovered she really didn't have limits.

None of them did. Merely the limitations they placed upon themselves.

Which, they were all beginning to realize, was the whole problem.

Once they'd spent a sufficient amount of time separated, Max declared that they _needed_ rules, _needed_ limitations. Yes, they could all go out and remake reality itself, but that did not mean they _should_. The new rules were actually quite simple; they were the same as the old ones. Don't use your powers unless it is a matter of life and death, and never in public.

Well, Xander and Michael both complained about that 'life and death' thing, so it was (diplomatically) amended to "...or something just as serious", which gave enough leeway to satisfy the two self-invested slackers.

As for Tess, everyone was super pissed with her, for like two days, during which she remained locked up in Michael's basement while they all took turns 'visiting' her and shaming her with their recriminations. On the third day, Liz's good-nature overrode whatever jealousy and anger she had toward Tess and she went with Isabel and Xander (the only 'neutral' party that they could all agree upon) and sat down and got Tess's side of the story.

The answers were simple, straight-forward, and also pretty much everything they already knew from their last Fusion with the young woman. Nasedo made the deal with Kivar, back in their home system, he'd raised her to be his 'inside-man', and also to carry on when he no longer could at some point. The end goal was the Granolith, and a cessation of power from the 'resurrected' Royals, to stop the Resistance back in their home system, and eventually their 'public' executions, after which they'd probably be resurrected again, but raised on their home planet to be puppets of Kivar.

The more important question, however, was Tess going to follow through with Nasedo's plans, or was she going to stay one of them?

The way Liz phrased the question, it stunned the blond in the alien-powers-proof-cage, and surprised the other two aliens. Xander, he just smirked and elaborated, after catching all the surprise.

"Yeah, Tess," he'd said, "Are you going to _stay_ one of _us_? Because, believe it or not, you still are. You are one of us. See, you haven't actually done anything yet. Just been raised to _do_ something. The secret is out, people are angry, but after the anger passes… you're still one of us, and we want to help you. So, how about it?"

After that, Tess almost immediately repented, and offered to let them Fuse with her, only to prove it true. A past experiment had proven that any injuries sustained by the Amalgam did _not_ transfer to the sources when separated, so she added that the others could all have shotguns pointed at Zand while he stood in the power-proof cage, to insure their safety. Not that _any_ of them had ever been able to "take over" the Amalgam to this point, but she wanted them to believe her… because they still believed in her.

They Fused and Separated after only a few minutes, that being enough time for Zand to confirm Tess was indeed sincere and just what it would take to keep Nasedo from betraying them further down the line. Apparently Shapeshifters _have_ to obey the orders of the Royal Four. There's a little bit of wiggle-room, and they can have their own interpretation of those orders, but they still have to obey. The catch, simply put, would be to find the right orders that eliminated all of Nasedo's wiggle-room.

Once the major crisis of debunking Tess's future betrayal was out of the way, the group turned its attention back toward abusing the heck out of Xander's powers.

"I'm sorry, you want me to _what_?!" he screamed at them

"We want you to try and fuse us without being part of the amalgam yourself," Max reiterated.

"That's what _they_ want!" Michael yelled out. "I was against messing with a good thing. But the _scientists_ have to do their little _experiments_!"

"I… I don't even know _how_ I do this thing in the first place!" Xander protested. "All we do is hold hands and we all think about Zand! That one time that we did it without Tess, which…"

"You've apologized enough for it," the blond interrupted. "And… it was necessary. It is over and behind us now, and things, ultimately, turned out for the best. Besides, Xander, after all that you've done for us, we still have to make good on the promises we made to you, which is to help you better understand your powers. Which is what we're trying to do here and now."

"Also," Liz spoke up, "I've been giving it a lot of thought, and I think I know what your trigger is. The first times that your powers activated, it was in dangerous situations, and it was agreed that everyone involved with the fusion were pretty much thinking the same thoughts; I want to survive, I want to protect, etcetera. Well, what if that is the key?"

"I'm not following," Xander confessed.

"What if," Liz explained, dragging Maria over next to her, "instead of thinking the same thoughts, or focusing on the fusion itself, you just focus on the two people you're trying to fuse together, while they," she physically moved Max and Michael next to each other, "think only of each other. We'll do this with a human only pair, and an alien pair, just to get a baseline. Now, Maria, think only of me, what you know about me, our friendship, and I'll do the same about you. Max, think about Michael, Michael, think about Max. Even if you don't like him, you still know him better than anybody else. And besides, I don't think that we want to start… mixing genders just yet."

Everyone winced at the image that provoked, and privately agreed.

"For the record," Michael spoke up, "I am still against this, but… there is no way I'm willing to see what you and Isabel look like as a single person, Max."

"Let's just do this," Max said, uncomfortable. "Please?"

Sighing, Xander shrugged and decided to follow Liz's advice, seeing as he had little clue what else to try. He reached out and took the girls hands, silently directing them to take each other's hand as well, and focused on the pair of them, trying to picture them as a single girl. He started with them, for the simple fact that if it _didn't_ work, or something went wrong, Max and Michael would still be necessary for the Zand Amalgam in order to fix it.

Ten seconds later, nothing was happening.

"Are you focusing?" Michael asked, impatient.

"You wanna do this?" Xander snapped. "Oh, right, you can't! Now shut up! I'm _trying_! Liz? Are you thinking about Maria… or Max?"

"Maria," the brunette replied firmly, her eyes closed and cheeks a little bit pink.

"Then maybe you should open your eyes and actually look at her," Xander pointed out. "You're best friends. It isn't like you're getting married or anything. You don't see all of us starting some kind of alien orgy after Zand separates, do you? No, we're just all friends. That's it. Friends. I swear."

"Friends," Liz repeated, letting out a sigh as the tension drained out of her.

Maria snorted, amused. "Yeah," she said. "Friends. Best friends."

Liz smiled and said back, "Best friends."

Xander opened his mouth to say more, but he was interrupted as he felt a shock of power run through him and was blinded by a flash of light going off, literally, right in his face!

At the same time, he was knocked back and fell to the ground. While he'd never experienced it first-hand, some long-not-quite-forgotten soldier memories stirred as he associated the experience with standing right in front of a flashbang grenade going off.

"Ow," he groaned, rolling on the ground, struggling to get back to his feet. He couldn't actually hear anything at the moment, although he did have the ocean screaming in his ears. Which was odd, because the Fusion-Flashes ( _not_ the 'official' name by the way) didn't have any sound associated with them. Fortunately, by the time he was standing once more, all his senses were back to normal and his equilibrium to boot.

Looking around, he saw the number of occupants of the room down by one, but minus two familiar faces, plus one _un_ familiar face.

"Uh, hello," he greeted the new face.

Speaking of, she was, in every observable way, the epitome of a blending of Liz and Maria. Looking at her face, he could see individual features that belonged to one or the other, but it was more like looking at the results of one of those _face fusion_ photoshop features that people are doing online all the time nowadays. Maria was normally much taller than Liz, but this new girl seemed to be _exactly_ in between their two heights. She had Liz's skin tone, but Maria's hair, her eyes were blue, but with flecks and shades of brown throughout, making them some kind of azure/hazel shade. She was also wearing the same clothes both had been wearing, but that wasn't too surprising seeing as they'd both still been wearing their diner uniforms

"So, uh," Xander spoke up, apparently the only one speaking at the moment, "What's your name? Everything all right?"

"Huh?" the new girl startled and looked up from where she'd been staring at her hands. "Oh, sorry Xander. Sorry, everyone. I was just thinking… are my fingerprints as different as the rest of me? Some kind of mishmash between my sources, or are they wholly unique to me?"

"What is your name?" Max demanded, stepping forward.

The dirty-blond smiled as she looked up at him, before frowning slightly at herself.

"Sorry," she apologized again, her voice similar to Maria's, without the scratchy-throat undertones of Liz's, but still with Liz's inflection. "I keep distracting myself. I am…" she blinked and appeared to think about it. "... I believe I will choose the name _Mary Elizabeth_ for myself. I somehow sense that this is the only moment in time in which I will truly exist. I have no special abilities, and while Liz and Maria are the truest of friends… they are not… fully compatible."

"Fully compatible? What does that mean?" Isabel asked.

"Is something wrong?" Alex asked, concerned for his friends. "Did something happen with the fusion? Are you like… dying? Are Liz and Maria going to be OK?"

"Liz and Maria will be fine," Mary Elizabeth assured them all. "Strange, but… I can now understand what Zand was talking about before. How… a Amalgam must know themselves, inside and out. I will try and explain, but…" she trailed off, looking between Max and Michael all of a sudden. "Perhaps we should continue with the experiment? Another Amalgam to… bounce ideas off of, might allow for this to go smoother."

Xander looked expectantly toward Max and Michael.

Max exchanged looks with Xander and Michael, before merely nodding his head.

Rolling his eyes, Michael said, "Just do it, before I change my mind."

"Oh, and you might want to brace your feet this time," Alex 'helpfully' said from the background, forcing Xander to roll his own eyes.

Rather than take them by the hands, Xander grabbed the two alien men by the shoulder, while the pair did hold hands, looking at each other, trying not to be grossed out. Oddly enough, that seemed to put their thoughts in sync quickly so that the flash of blinding light came after only a few moments. Better prepared for it, not to mention having closed his eyes from the start this time, Xander stayed on his feet and stepped back when he felt the shoulders beneath his grip fall away. Upon opening his eyes, he was greeted by… a familiar/unfamiliar face of a man that could easily be called Max and Michael's "other" brother. Physically, the amalgam was the same as Zand, but that was saying that he was the same as Max, Michael and Xander. He had Michael's long hair, although the color was a consistent black rather than brunette-brown, and the same face-fusion effect that Mary Elizabeth had experienced, just with Max and Michael. As for his clothes, ironically enough, the pair's clothing had shifted into the same black leather bodysuit that Zand always appeared in. They all silently decided it was more due to the yet-to-be-named amalgam's alien powers rather than Xander's fusion powers.

"So," Xander said after no one else spoke for almost half a minute, "What is your name?"

He blinked, slowly, self-reflecting, obviously. Then he looked up and around the room, locked eyes with Mary Elizabeth, did the whole star-crossed-lovers-soulmate-stare that Max and Liz were known for, before finally looking back to Xander and saying, "M."

"Uh, come again?" the super-powered human blurted out.

"My name," he said, speaking with Max's halting, flat tone, but with a voice more like Michael's, "is M. Like James Bond's boss in the novels and early movies. Neither of us were about to mangle our names… sorry. Neither of my sources, wished to try and combine or disassemble their various names, so it was subconsciously decided that I'll just stick with the one part of their names they both like."

"The first letter?!" Isabel blurted out, disgusted.

M shrugged, and crossed his arms, scoffing at Max's sister, displaying mannerisms that were typical of Michael, they all noted.

"It is very nice to meet you, M," Mary Elizabeth said, stepping forward and practically putting herself in M's personal space.

"I really want to kiss you right now," he said without thinking.

"Wouldn't exactly be cheating, seeing as our sources are each other's significant others," she pointed out.

"OK, focus here!" Isabel snapped, physically coming between the couple. "Stop that! We don't have time for that sort of thing! Speaking of… How much time have you got? This isn't exactly a typical fusion here."

"Half an hour," Mary Elizabeth answered automatically, ducking her head in shame.

"Twenty-eight minutes, thirteen seconds and counting," M recited, rather robot-like.

"I blame the alien part for that," Xander couldn't help zinging.

"Why so little time?" Alex questioned.

"Probably because Xander isn't a part of the fusion," Tess pointed out. "Also, there are fewer… sources involved. Including more might increase, or decrease the time they can remain fused. Tell us, M, can you do everything that Zand can?"

"Right off the bat," M replied, "I can say that I cannot. For one thing, Zand can use Mindwarps and invade people's subconscious minds. I've got all of Max's _unique_ talents, but I can also tell I'm a lot stronger than him. Also, I can do this…"

He waved his hand over his face and then across his clothes, and suddenly there were _two_ Xanders standing there. The Xander-that-had-been-M smirked and said, "Michael's been practicing. But as an Amalgam… my focus, my control is a lot greater. I see what you meant, Mary."

"Mary Elizabeth," she snapped, sounding a _lot_ like Maria right then. "And yes. My thoughts are clear and focused, and I just… _know myself_. Which is why I am equally certain that Maria and Liz will never be fused like this again, so this is the only point in time at which I will exist. I don't know _how_ I know it, but I know it."

M paused and considered, reverting himself back to his original appearance. "Yes, I can feel that too. This is a one time deal, merely meant to test the results of Xander's powers. Quite disappointing, such a brief existence, this."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Xander waved the red flag. "Stop all the existentialist crap, please! Suddenly I'm glad that he didn't talk, the first time this happened. Liz… er, Mary Elizabeth, should we try force-separating you both? Can you separate like Zand can?"

They both shook their heads.

"You _can_ force-separate us, Xander, but we cannot separate ourselves," she answered. "The only reason Zand could at all is because of you. We'll separate on our own, and… if it is all right, we'd both like to enjoy the brief time that we have."

"Yeah, you two are _not_ being left alone," Isabel snapped. "That much I can guarantee already. Michael and Maria are bad enough on their own, but throw in Liz and Max? It'd be Romeo and Juliet all over again! The _bad_ parts, in case anyone was wondering!"

"So what do we do for the next twenty-odd minutes?" Mary Elizabeth challenged her. "We were created for the sole purpose of testing Xander's powers and seeing _if_ we could be made. I don't have any powers, and M already demonstrated what he can do. So what else are we supposed to do, huh?!"

"Well, we could do what you were suggesting earlier," Alex piped up. At everyone's looks, he continued. "You were wondering about your fingerprints? Or at least, that's what you said you were wondering about. How if they're unique to you, or just a mish-mash of Liz's and Maria's. We could take your fingerprints, and other general measurements, and then when you all separate, compare with the… are we really calling them _sources_? Cause that just makes it sound like we're reporters or tv show cops or something."

"Have you got a better idea?" M snapped, channeling his 'Michael' half at the moment.

"No," Xander interrupted, "but then neither does anybody else. So… Alex, without Liz and Max around, you are our resident nerd-scientist, no offense. You start figuring out what measurements, or whatever, we need to take, and the rest of us will, I don't know, start experimenting. God, that sounds so weird coming out of my mouth."

"Might as well," Mary Elizabeth said to M, who shrugged back, agreeing.

What followed was a rather hectic twenty minutes of rapid testing and measuring. They took fingerprints, hair, blood, and skin samples, mostly to see what would happen after the two Amalgams separated, but also in hopes of getting them forensically analyzed later on. They measured the both of them extensively, though the intimate stuff was done behind closed doors with the girls helping Mary Elizabeth and M getting help from the guys. As it was, they barely had enough time to get the basics, before time was up, and Mary Elizabeth turned back into Liz and Maria, and a few minutes after that, Max and Michael were 'hugging it out'.

"This…" "...is…" "...a…" "...lot…" "...worse…" "...than…" "...you…" "...guys…" "...made…" "...it…" "...out…" both; "... _to be_!"

The two pair that had been fused couldn't be dragged away from each other for anything. In fact, they were holding one another so close that they each were practically sitting in the other's lap, and if it weren't for Max and Michael being in the same predicament, it might have been OK, and even kind of hot. Worse than that though, when speaking, they could each only say a single word.

"It's…" Max grunted, and Michael finished, "...Not!"

"I think that might be my fault," Xander raised his hand. "Again."

"What do you mean?" Tess asked.

"Mary Elizabeth and M both said it," he pointed out. "Zand can control his fusion because _I'm_ part of the fusion. Chances are pretty good that me being part of it lessens the side-effects too. I mean, look at them! It's already been ten minutes, and they're all still holding onto each other like they're trying to physically fuse themselves back together again. We started a clock when they separated, right?" He looked back at Alex for the answer.

In reply, he held up the stop watches and shrugged. "Ever since we started these experiments, Liz has kept meticulous notes about how long each phase of the fusion can last. They were right, by the way. Each of the fusions lasted thirty minutes, down to the second. If the withdrawal symptoms are the same, this will only last an hour, but we're keeping time all the same."

"I wonder what would happen if… somebody else touches them, while they're going through withdrawal?" Tess asked, staring almost hungrily at Max and Michael.

"Oh, we already know that," Alex said, digging through his notes. "The other week, after the hour-long trial with Zand, Max and Liz tried to hold hands, and the whole group flinched away. After the halfway mark of withdrawal, the flinching stopped."

"So, at thirty minutes," Xander said, speaking mostly to the embracing pairs at the moment, "we'll try touch you guys. Just friendly, comforting stuff, OK?"

"... O…" "...K…"

"All…" "...right…"

"Be sure to note when they can start saying more than a single word each," Isabel said to Alex, giving him a sideways hug, before going to get herself a snack.

Unfortunately, the withdrawal symptoms didn't seem to be letting up by the time they got to the half-hour mark since separation. If anything, they actually seemed to be getting worse, as the boys had taken off their shirts and were laying on top of one another, actually holding the other to themselves as hard as they possibly could. The girls had actually been on the verge of taking their dresses off, but to do so would require more distance from one another than they could stand, so they just settled for spooning and entwining their limbs as much as possible.

At forty-five minutes since separation, and with no sign of the symptoms letting up, (they still couldn't say more than one word each), Xander finally suggested, "Maybe I should fuse them again? But this time, make myself part of the fusion? I'd hate to think that I did this to you guys!"

"Don't…" "...blame…" "...yourself…" "...Xander…" Liz and Maria said.

"Not…" "...your…" "...fault…" Max and Michael stuttered.

"Uh, yeah, it kinda is!" he retorted. "I'm the one that fused you together in the first place! Testing my powers or not, _I did this_ to you, and it is up to me to fix it!"

"Just," Isabel physically held Xander back from the pairs, "wait until the cut off time, all right? If they're still this bad after the twice-as-long-time-limit goes by, then we'll start talking about what to do. Until then, no making things worse! Got it?"

Taking a breath, Xander nodded and took a step back. "Got it. But I'm just going to put this out there now; no more fusions where I'm not part of it, got it?"

"Have you thought that maybe you could make the withdrawal less intensive via other means?" Tess proposed.

"What do you mean?" Isabel asked.

"Well," she said, "apparently, Xander's power, whatever it may be, is more varied than we thought. At first, we just thought it fused him with whoever he touched and created a new person from those people. Now, we just found out that he can fuse other people without having to be part of the same Amalgam. And, we found out from those Amalgams that because he's a part of the Amalgam, he can control when they separate, and now, apparently make it so the withdrawal symptoms are not nearly as bad as they could be. So… what if…?" she trailed off, but Xander picked up on her line of thought.

"What if there _is_ something that I can do, to make it not as bad," he said, moving forward again.

"Wait!" Isabel cried out.

"Actually," Alex spoke up suddenly, holding the stopwatch. "Let him try Isabel. Liz and Maria passed the hour mark a full minute ago."

Both pairs groaned in pain and seemed to be trying to hold one another even tighter than before. Max and Michael had a dangerous gleam in their eyes and they all noted their hands lighting up. Afraid that they'd actually try and _fuse_ themselves together with their own alien powers, Isabel did nothing to stop Xander as he rushed forward and grabbed the girls.

Unlike before, when Alex and Isabel and Tess had tried reaching out to the pairs, they did not flinch away from Xander's touch. If anything, they seemed to gravitate toward it, as some part of their bodies and minds knew that his touch could make them _one_ again!

Once in contact, Xander instinctively knew what was going on, and-somehow-what he had to do to fix it. Closing his eyes, he reached out with his mind, with his… _energy_ for lack of a better term, into their bodies, where their cells were still trying to revert back to their fused state. And then he just… soothed them. There was probably a more scientific term for it, but from his perspective that was all he did. He soothed the cells in their bodies the same way he would soothe a wounded animal getting treatment.

Almost instantly, they calmed down and let each other go. In fact, they both stood up and pulled away from him as well as each other. Seeing that it worked, Xander wasted no time and rushed over to the boys and applied the same soothing to them. Just in time too, as they were both on the verge of trying to fuse parts of their body together, although that type of fusion would be more akin to a welding torch.

"That was…" Maria started to say, but couldn't quite get it out. "That was… that was not fun. Or good, or natural, or pretty much anything that I would ever want to do or have happen again. Why did you talk me into this again?"

"It was," Liz slowly admitted, "different. But it was necessary, Maria. We had to know. And now we know more. Thanks, Xander, for… well, for making it stop."

"How do you guys feel?" Isabel asked.

"Almost normal," Maria answered. "Now. Before, it was like… everything that you hear about junkies going through withdrawal, only about a million times worse."

"I'm so sorry guys," Xander apologized yet again.

"For the last time," Michael suddenly snapped at him. "This wasn't your fault. And you made it right in the end. That's all that anyone can do. Besides, Liz is right. We had to know."

"I'm still _never_ doing that again!" Maria insisted.

"Probably why Mary Elizabeth and M both felt that they would never exist again past this point," Tess remarked. "We never really tested M's powers that much, but Max, Michael? Did you learn anything or recall how powerful you were as M?"

Max shook his head. "It was just like with Zand. I'm… aware of what he was thinking, when he was thinking about it, but…"

"Like watching a movie or sitting in one of those action-motion ride things," Michael concluded. "Nothing about how much easier, or not, shapeshifting and our other powers might be. We know he could use Max's green-shield thing, but no chances to heal or blow stuff up or anything."

"I remember having like perfect recall," Maria spoke up. "When she was going through my memories and stuff. It was like… she could remember _everything_ that I ever saw or thought about, but I forgot on my way to school or whatever. Still never doing it again."

"She gave me a few good ideas about future experiments we could try, but beyond having perfect total recall, Mary Elizabeth didn't really stand out. Although, I now know a few things about Maria that she probably wouldn't want spoken out loud. And the same goes for me," said Liz.

"Yeah, that's great and all," Xander interrupted. "But it still isn't helping me with my biggest fear at the moment, which is how to avoid randomly fusing with people! And now, I have the added worry that if I'm touching more than one person like that, instead of fusing with them, I'll just fuse all of them together! And then they'll be in agony if I'm not there to sooth them or reverse whatever side effects there are of being part of an amalgam!"

"And I'm afraid that I'll blow somebody's face off the next time I point at them," Michael heatedly argued.

"And I'm afraid that instead of healing someone, I may end up killing them faster," Max added neutrally.

"You don't know how often I've been tempted," Isabel started to say, but her voice nearly broke, it was so filled with emotion. "None of you have any idea, how… _tempting_ it is. When you find that… _perfect dream_! To me, they aren't just dreams, they're these, I don't know how else to describe it. These whole other worlds, that I can go in and out of. I could fall asleep one night, and never wake up, because I was living out life in a dream world instead."

Tess stepped forward, looking quite ashamed. "I… know what the consequences are. If I overuse my power. If I keep mindwarping the same person, or if I use a long term mindwarp… I can cause real, actual brain damage to the person. Nasedo… he showed me, made me do it once. So I could know."

She shivered and hugged herself, tears brimming at her eyes. No one else moved to comfort, or reject her. They all merely listened.

"Your power, Xander," Tess said, "It brings people closer together. It tears down the walls and goes right through the lies, straight to the truth. And while there may be some discomfort and pain involved, yours is by far the most beneficial and useful power of everyone here. Of anyone that you could think of. All our powers, there is so much potential for abuse and destruction and… and death. But you…" She trailed off as the tears finally spilled over.

At that, the more empathic of their group stopped holding themselves back and rushed forward to embrace the young blond alien girl.

"But your power, Xander," she gasped out through the tears, "it creates. It doesn't destroy. I've felt it, every time that I have been apart of Avilzandrath, at the core is you. Your… light. You're a hero, Xander. Don't ever doubt that. Please."

It turned out to be a very emotional night.

The experiments continued. Everybody that was a part of the group got to experience Fusion and being part of an Amalgam at least once. True to her word, Maria never fused with Liz again, and although they were closer friends than they'd ever been before, there was some unspoken agreement that the reason they'd had such intense withdrawal symptoms had more to do than Xander not being part of the fusion. They couldn't explain it, but some instinct told them that they weren't truly compatible with one another.

That did nothing to stop the others in the group from trying it out. The next test was in seeing if a human and an alien could fuse, and to see what amalgam came out of that. And of course, Max and Liz were first among the volunteers, but nobody was willing to risk seeing what a male/female fusion would create, not without tipping the balance in one direction over the other.

So, eager to take part, Alex volunteered to be fused with Michael. Isabel was understandably reluctant to allow that, seeing as Alex was her sort-of-boyfriend/love interest, and Michael and she had _literally_ been made for each other on the genetic level. And yet, a part of her was intrigued by what Amalgam would be created, containing the two men that she was most interested in.

 _Malex_ existed for thirty minutes, and as with Mary Elizabeth, confirmed that he would never exist again. Unlike the others, however, that somehow tried to strike a balance between the sources, Malex was as tall as Alex, yet seemed to have all of Michael's features stretched to fit that frame. When tested, they also discovered that his powers were actually somewhat weaker than Michael's, even though he had the same perfect total recall of all other Amalgams.

When Xander tried to fuse Liz and Tess together, he was shocked to discover that he couldn't. When he tried to fuse _with_ them, he somehow sensed that he was missing something, that at least one other would be necessary to make the fusion work. Trying again with Isabel and Maria, over Maria's protests and Xander's assurances that he would ensure the withdrawal lasted as little as possible, there were no issues.

 _Vilaria_ openly admitted to being Michael's wet dream made flesh, and was constantly teasing and toying with the poor boy, but it finally confirmed that there was nothing detrimental about fusing humans and aliens, it was all about the people. Alex and Michael were not entirely complimentary to one another, so Malex was weak. Isabel and Maria were at least friends, though certainly not best friends, and the one thing they had in common was their feelings for Michael, which apparently made them fairly compatible. Vilaria, therefore, was almost as strong as Zand or M proved to be, just limited to Isabel's skill set, though with Maria's wicked tongue it made for a volatile package.

Having exhausted all other avenues of research, everyone finally relented and allowed Xander to Fuse Max and Liz. _He_ didn't talk much. His eyes were glazed over pretty much from the moment the light faded from his initial appearance, to when he finally separated thirty minutes later. Because of that (and for no other reason), that Amalgam was dubbed, by Michael, as _The Dreamer_.

Afterwards, it was all Xander could do to get close enough to sooth the couple's withdrawal symptoms, and even then they were intent on being as close to one another as they could, and kept giving each other longing looks and lovesick smiles. It was similar enough to how Buffy and Angel kept acting for the past year that Xander was very nearly made sick from it. It was only his experiences as part of Zand, allowing him a highly unique perspective on the truth behind Max Evans, which kept him from saying anything at all.

The experiments and testing of powers finally came to a close two days after the Dreamer's second appearance. Liz… something happened to Liz, which brought everything into question, and ultimately forced Xander to say goodbye to his new friends. Besides, he'd stayed in Roswell for almost three full weeks. It was time he moved on in his road trip.

"Something is wrong with Liz," Alex declared, walking into the Crashdown and sitting at table where Xander, Max, Michael, Isabel and Maria were already congregated. "She is sick or something. And… you all already know this, don't you?"

Maria raised her hand and smiled prettily. "Just filled them in and gave them the Four-One-One. I was there when it happened, by the way. And, so was Max."

"And according to Maria," Michael snarkily pointed out, "Max seems to be the _cause_ of Liz's sudden illness." It was clear from his tone, posture, expression, pretty much everything that he firmly disagreed with his girlfriend and was saying this only to get her riled up.

"Believe me or not," she said, shooting her boyfriend a mild glare, but keeping her own voice as serious as possible, "Whenever Max got close to her, these bolts of green electricity, or _something_ began dancing across her skin. Closer he got, the worse it got, and… she was in real pain, guys."

"When I got further away from Liz," Max mournfully admitted, "she got better. Maria said the displays of… power stopped, and Liz said she felt better, but still… sick."

"Like PMS sick, or flu sick?" Michael thoughtlessly questioned.

"Like," Max glanced around and leaned forward to whisper, " _withdrawal_ sick. I think… I think Maria is right. Somehow… fusing with me did something to Liz and…"

"Why just you?" Xander interrupted that line of thought.

"What?" they all asked together.

"Liz has been fused with Maria, you, and me and Alex with Maria to try that fully human counterpart to Zand," Xander pointed out. "First time the _Dreamer_ , as Michael calls that particular Amalgam, came about, you and Liz were both fine. We've all formed Zand more than two dozen times now, and nothing has happened to me, or any of the other humans that have been part of the fusion. So why would Liz be affected like this-if she were going to be affected by fusing at all-when only in proximity to _you_ , Max? Michael, Isabel, have you seen Liz recently?"

"Yeah," Isabel admitted. "She seemed a little under the weather, but nothing as bad as what you guys are describing. I tried to see if I could help, but she said she was fine. There wasn't any kind of… reaction to me touching or getting close to her though."

"I helped Maria get her upstairs," Michael told them.

"And I just came from there," Alex said. "And Tess is there right now, helping take care of her, and… come to think of it, probably keeping her parents from seeing the green lightning on her skin."

"Also…" Maria started to say, but trailed off.

"What?" Xander asked, insistent. "What is it, Maria?"

"If it were just some alien sickness, we wouldn't be so confused," she admitted. "We'd just have Max heal her or give her a bunch of antibiotics or something. There's… more."

"Care to clue us in?" Michael wanted to know.

"Liz… set her textbook on fire," Max confessed.

"And she kind of turned on a broken radio that I was tinkering with," Alex added.

"And she's melted four or five different plates," Maria added.

"She… has powers?" Isabel choked out the question.

"It appears so," Max said in that halting-manner of his.

"So," Xander reiterated, now glaring at the tall lanky alien leader, "Back to the main question; Why just you, Max? You've fused with Liz more than five times now. You literally know her inside and out, and now officially better than even Maria can claim, as she's only fused with Liz once. Now she has powers on top of being sick with some kind of green energy virus. What is going on?"

"I'm… not sure," Max reluctantly confessed. "It isn't anything that I'm _doing_ , but…" He trailed off and guiltily looked over toward the back corner of the restaurant.

Michael's face lit up with inspiration, when he glanced over to where Max had been looking, and then his own face mirrored his friend's guilty look. "But it might be something that you _did_ ," he finished for the other alien hybrid.

Everyone, except Xander, all had a sudden 'Aha!' moment and look on their faces, but it was Maria who put a voice to what they were all thinking.

"When you healed her," she said. "You think that you might have… changed her, or something? Made her…?"

"An alien?" Xander concluded. "Would that even be possible?"

Michael hushed them and spoke in harsh quiet tones, "Nasedo explained to me, when we were getting Max out of the White Room, our powers aren't _alien_ , they're _human_. We can do things that apparently anybody could, provided they could use the brain's full potential without frying their own skulls. Maybe…" he shrugged.

"Maybe instead of like you," Xander leaned back, in awe of his own words, "when you healed her, you made Liz like _me_. Or others _like_ me. Just… modeled after your own abilities. And this… this is her powers evolving, changing her. Anyone noticed the drop in intensity of the withdrawal symptoms, even if the length is the same?"

"I thought that was just us getting used to it," Isabel remarked. "Maybe it's your powers developing, making it so there soon won't be any pain involved, just a… lingering connection?"

"And whatever," Alex said, shrugging, " _process_ that was started by Max healing her, it got, I don't know, _accelerated_ whenever she and Max were part of the same Amalgam?"

"Is there any way to reverse it?" Maria asked, looking pensive.

"Whoa," Xander held up his hands and slammed the brakes on this conversation. "Before _any_ of that kind of talk is discussed, we need to bring Liz in on this. With… sufficient distance between Max and her, of course. Maria, Alex, want to head on up and the rest of us will find a way up to the balcony? Talk with Liz about what we've said here, get her opinion. Give us a call on Isabel's phone when she's ready for us to come up. If this _is_ something that can be reversed, I'm pretty sure the only one able to do anything about it is the same person that can't even touch her right now."

They nodded and the two childhood friends of Liz Parker immediately charged up the stairs to their friend's room, leaving Xander with the three aliens. Half an hour later, Isabel got a text, and they made their way up to the back side of the building and from there up the fire escape to the balcony outside Liz's window, which was left open. Still, to be on the safe side, Max was made to sit on the ledge of the balcony, at the furthest point from where Liz was seated in her bed. Xander made sure to stay outside the window, but still close enough to participate in the conversation.

"Look, I appreciate you all being here for me and all," Liz moaned from her place on the bed, "but I'm fine. I'll be fine. This is… nothing, it's just…"

"Yeah, try and sell that to the guy that didn't already give the school nurse every excuse in the book, and then some," Xander interrupted her. "Liz, I need you to tell me _exactly_ what you're feeling here. It could be important."

"Why?" she blurted out. "Why do my feelings, all of a sudden, matter to everybody? So I've got a flu, or something…"

"An _alien_ flu!" Maria interjected.

"So what?" Liz hoarsely screamed at them. "It doesn't change anything, does it?"

"Safe to say she's feeling the same symptoms most women do when they're PMS'ing," Michael rudely commented.

Turning to look at the trailer-park-raised alien boy, Xander replied, "I'd slap you on the head right now, but it really isn't my place to do so." Turning back toward the bedroom, he continued. "No, Liz, I mean do you feel like you are going through withdrawal, or something else. Be as specific as you can. I… have an idea about this, but, I need to be sure."

"What's your idea?" Tess asked.

He looked back at her, pausing to give each of them the same look before finally repeating to Liz, "I need to be sure."

They all looked back and forth between the adamant stranger and the bed-ridden sick girl, before finally settling on Liz to see what she would do. Rolling her eyes at the behavior of her friends, she ultimately relented.

"Fine," she grumbled. "I guess, I feel… out of place in my own skin. Like… I'm _not_ myself. I've… had a couple of hallucinations. I saw myself in the mirror, only I didn't have a face. Or like my food all turned white and tasted like rice cakes or something. So, no it doesn't feel like withdrawal. That was… different. This is like… like, like I don't know what."

"Headaches?" Xander asked.

"A few, but not all the time," Liz answered.

"Migraine, sinus, stress, or injury?" he clarified.

Shrugging again, she replied, "Stress, I guess. Nothing like when I had that concussion last year, and I wouldn't be sitting here with the lights turned on talking to you all if it was like a migraine."

"Any achiness? Swollen joints? Inflammation?" Now they began to suspect he was just throwing out words from medicine commercials.

"Uh, no, no, and… not really," Liz answered anyway. "It… stings and almost burns when the sparks get really bad, but nothing itching or hurting or anything like that. Why? What are you thinking, Xander?"

"Can I come in?" he asked, if only to be polite.

Recalling his warnings about inviting just anybody into her home, (and they were _all_ grateful that they only had to deal with alien and government crap rather than vampires or demons), Liz merely nodded her head once, not actually saying anything or offering an actual invitation. Xander had assured them (after a phone call to a non-FBI-friend he called G-Man) that so long as there was an actual barrier, like a door or doorway, between the public and private areas of the building, it didn't matter that the ground floor of her home was a public restaurant. No vampire could cross that threshold without an invitation, even if they were already in the restaurant.

Climbing through the window and moving to stand beside her bed, he reached for and took her arm, pulling back the long sleeved sweater so he could see the small bolts of green electricity dance across her skin. He could _feel_ the static electricity that she was generating. And yet, he wasn't stung.

"Max," he called. "Come to the window, please?"

Liz's breath hitched a little, but Xander smiled reassuringly and patted her shoulder. "I just need to be sure," he repeated.

"Sure about what?" Max asked, already at the window.

As everyone had been saying, in response to the alien leader's proximity, the energy running just beneath the girl's skin noticeably increased. She gasped as the pain increased, and yet… Xander still wasn't stung.

Looking around the room, he quickly found an unlit candle set on a nearby table.

Bringing one over to the bed and holding it in front of Liz, he said, "Touch the wick with one finger. Think of it already being lit. Don't ask why. Just… think of a lit candle, and touch the wick, Liz."

Frowning and doing as she was told, Liz touched the candle. It burst into flame with a small flare, but was soon controlled and doing what candles were meant to do. Xander blew out the candle.

"I didn't do that!" all of the aliens said in a unison rarely seen outside of withdrawal times.

"No," Xander confirmed. "Liz did. I think we need Zand to confirm, but…"

"But what?!" half the room practically screamed at him.

"But I think that it is pretty obvious," he finally shared his theory, "that while this all started when Max first healed Liz and opened this… connection between the two of them, fusing and being a part of the same Amalgam has greatly accelerated the process."

"What are you saying?" Max asked, everyone having a bit of trouble processing what the Sunnydalian was telling them.

"Michael already said it, didn't he?" Xander said. "Your ' _powers_ ' are just fully-evolved _human_ powers, if our brains and bodies were developed enough. Case in point, me and those other… _evolved humans_ that I met on my way here. It is just that Liz's powers will probably be modeled after yours, Max. She won't be an alien or have alien DNA or anything, but she'll have the same powers as the rest of you, and maybe even her own unique gifts as each of you have your own gifts."

"What about all the other people that Max has healed, or may one day heal?" Isabel questioned.

Xander shrugged. "Don't know, but I wouldn't worry about it so much. What makes Liz so unique isn't that she was _healed_ by Max, but that they have a _connection_. Everyone here has seen their Amalgam. He's not mute or dumb or autistic or anything. He's…"  
"He's what?" Michael interrupted.

"He's _self-involved_ ," Xander stressed. "He's literally _in love_ with himself, but not in the way that most people are. Is this making any sense?"

"No," they all said.

"Look, the… _Dreamer_ doesn't talk because he's too focused on the _connection_ that Max and Liz have with each other," he tried again. "I mean, think about it. _All_ that the two of them focus on or think about _is_ their connection to one another. And if they aren't thinking about each other, than they're angsting over the consequences of their connection to one another and other teen drama stuff like that! So _maybe_ each time they formed the Dreamer, said Dreamer wasn't talking because he was too busy hastening this transformation Liz is undergoing, a consequence of her connection to Max. Get it now?"

"How do we stop it?" Maria was the first to ask.

Xander shrugged helplessly. "Dunno. That's for Zand to figure out," he said.

The four Aliens all nodded and stepped to the center of the room, still making sure to keep Max as far away from Liz as they feasibly could. Xander joined them, and then they all put their hands together as one, having done this so many times by now that it was an ingrained habit. Likewise, all the remaining humans in the room knew to shield their eyes an instant beforehand as the blinding flash came and left behind the first Amalgam they'd come to know.

Zand looked down at himself and frowned. Parts… some very diminished part of him somehow knew that this was the last time he'd be formed… as he was. And yet, there was also an impression that he _would_ continue to exist at several points in the future. The feeling of those future moments were similar to the time when he'd been formed _without_ Ava, aka Tess. If he had to guess, though he hardly had the time to do a great deal of introspection at the moment, he'd say that Xander would no longer be a part of the fusion process, if Avilzandrath was ever to be summoned again. But that was the future. Right now, he had to deal with the present.

"The situation is exactly as Xander explained it," were his first words. "When he healed you, Max created a… connection between the two of you, Liz. That connection went both ways, unfortunately, but in order for it to… complete the connection, you had to be made… more compatible."

"I don't understand," Liz was shaking her head. "Can you fix this," she held up her sparking hand, "or not?!"

"If I were to try, it would hurt you, and I never want to hurt you, Liz," said Zand.

"Well, maybe this will hurt me more if you do nothing!" she shouted, getting angry for no reason it would seem.

There was a brief interruption when Liz's parents tried to come in, but Zand merely used his powers to disregard the interruption, making them think that the movie all the kids were watching had just been turned up too loud.

"Just so you know, this is more the Xander and Isabel side than the Max side," Zand said as disclaimer. "Liz, when I say this would hurt you, if I tried to stop or even reverse this… this _change_ that you are going through, I mean that it would _physically_ hurt you. As in lobotomy, slash, amputation, slash, organ removal, slash, chemotherapy kind of hurt you. This isn't dangerous to you, Liz. In fact, it will enable you to be stronger than you can possibly know."

"Would," Alex started to say, "Would Max be able to, uh, change the rest of us? If he heals us? Give us powers, I mean? Would what is happening to Liz happen to _everyone_ that Max ultimately heals?"

Zand thought about it. As in, he _really_ thought about it.

After ten or fifteen seconds of tense silence, he answered, "No. It happened to Liz because of hers and Max's connection, not because he healed her. It was accelerated because of the Dreamer Amalgam. Left on its own, Liz still would have developed these powers, undergone this change, but not for years. And that would be dependant upon her connection with Max remaining consistent. If anything ever threatened their connection, then it possibly could have accelerated on its own, but…"

"So it's Max's fault," Maria summarized.

Zand shrugged and agreed, "It's Max's fault. Once the sparks disappear, have Xander recreate the Dreamer one final time, and make sure that he uses his powers. That will teach Liz how to use her new powers with the minimal amount of difficulty."

"How do you know so much about this, anyway?" Maria asked the Amalgam.

"Most of it is instinctive," Zand confessed. "The rest, I get from liberal use of my own, unique powers, which allow me to gather information rather quickly."

"What kind of… unique powers?" Liz questioned. "You've never mentioned that before."

"That is because it was obvious," he shrugged in reply. "I have all of my sources' individual powers and talents and skills, and I have them at their full potential. Individually, my sources are still learning about their powers, about the limits of their powers. I already know everything about my limits. Furthermore, I can combine and simultaneously use multiple powers at once. Michael's newfound shapeshifting power gives me unprecedented knowledge and insight into human biology, combined with Isabel's mental abilities, Max's healing skills, not to mention Tess's latent Projection powers and I can know everything about what is happening to your cells with just one look. And, for the record, yes, I could also change you back to normal. But, like I said; lobotomy/amputation/chemotherapy/etc/etc/etc…"

"So... " Alex looked back and forth between the girls and the male amalgam in the uncomfortable silence to follow. "About how long are we looking at? A day or two? A few weeks? A month?"

"The sparks should fade away by tonight," Zand answered. "Wait until the day after tomorrow, at the earliest, to try and reform the Dreamer. I'll head to the town outskirts, maybe visit the Granolith before I separate. That'll give you some distance from Max, give you some space to think about things, Liz."

"Are… am I… are Max and I…?" she rambled, but trailed off.

Zand, who was now by the window, glanced back and patiently waited for her to get her thoughts in order.

"What is going to happen to me and Max?" she finally asked. "After all this, I mean? Are we like… bonded for life? Did I marry an alien when he saved my life? Are we soulmates, or am I just Max's 'human' wife while Tess becomes his 'alien' wife? I… I need some answers here, Zand. Please?"

"Well," he answered, entirely a hundred plus percent all Max in that moment, "until you say otherwise, Liz, you're his girlfriend and he's your boyfriend. As for Tess, she doesn't swing that way, but you're all still in high school. Best wait until college before you try _those_ kind of alien experiments."

He climbed out the window and then knelt back down so he was looking through. "As for anything else, you have a connection. What all that means is only what you make of it Liz. I'll let you get some rest now." With that said, he vanished into the fading dusk, leaving Liz, Maria and Alex alone in the girl's bedroom.

Three days later, Liz started working on her own 'powers-training' boot camp alongside the others. By the end of that week, Xander felt that he'd done all the he could, probably even more than he should have done in Roswell.

He'd only gotten through two states on his national road trip as it was, and staying in town for much longer would ruin the whole point of his road trip anyway. Besides, he did kind of want to be back in Sunnydale before the others started college, if only to be on hand. Then again, he also needed to get a firm grip on these new powers of his, and he had a feeling that he needed to go elsewhere to explore that.

So, he called the gang together, bought them breakfast, (with liberal use of Liz, Maria and Michael's employee discount) and told them goodbye. There were tears, there were shouts of recrimination, there were manly hugs and handshakes, but goodbyes were said and he was on the road north before ten o'clock. He really didn't want to try and wrestle with the Texan desert, so rather than tempt fate by heading to Dallas, and eventually New Orleans, and maybe Miami, he went north toward Colorado, specifically Colorado Springs, and maybe Denver.

A month and a half later, Max, Michael, Isabel, Tess and their friends uncovered and stopped the plot by the _Skins_. Half a month before that, a Max from the future came to the past, trying to convince Liz that she needed to break up with his past self so that Tess wouldn't leave. Rather than blindly listen to him, which she would've done before getting powers of her own (not to mention a random and uncontrollable ability to get visions of the future), Liz turned the plot around and _became_ the reason Tess would stick around. They occasionally let Max watch, when he was a good boy.

As for Tess, rather than do everything herself and mindwarp Alex into translating the book for her, she and Liz worked _with_ Alex and Max in deciphering it, between classes and stopping alien invasion plots. Max got a new boss at the Area 51 Museum, who just so happened to have been abducted by aliens and captured the signal the four sent out at the beginning of summer, but he was harmless and turned out to be a true ally in the end.

Then the Duplicates showed up, or three of them anyway, talking about some Alien Conference or meeting or something in New York that the "Royal Four" were invited to. Now knowing the lengths their enemies had gone to, thanks to Tess turning around and revealing the deal Nasedo had made with Kivar, Max knew better than to trust the duplicates outright.

Around the same time, they got a message from their friend Xander, who needed their help in Sunnydale. But that is a story for later.

END **Fusion 03**


End file.
